Vintage living: Older homes provide unique experiences

A formal dining area connects the front room of Kerrieann and Michael Axt's 1912 Craftsman home in Central Gardens and a first-floor play area for their three young children. The Axts spent a year restoring the downstairs millwork to its original warm dark color, and outfitted the front rooms with period art and furnishings. "This house is perfect," Kerrieann Axt says. "We could live here forever."

A remodeled bathroom and sunroom are adjacent to the couple's second-floor master bedroom. A creaking floorboard in front of the children's room adds character to the home.

The Axts researched the Arts & Crafts Movement in order to find furnishings that complemented the architectural style of their Central Gardens home.

Kerrieann Axt loves the fact that her floorboards creak. She loves that the walls in her house aren't completely square. She loves that the history of the place seeps through its century-year-old Craftsman bones and reminds her and her family, every day, that other families occupied the place generations before them.

"When my kids walk up the stairs, I see their hands touch the walls on the way up, and the plaster walls are so uneven. I love that," said Axt, who moved to Memphis in 2010 with her husband, Michael, and their three kids, twins Owen and Eliot, 4; and Townes, 2. "I want them to remember that stuff. You don't get that in a new house."

The Axts fell in love with Craftsman homes in 2003 when they bought their first house, a 1903-built bungalow in Atlanta. They researched the Arts & Crafts Movement and began buying furniture and accessories from the period to complement the home's history. As their family grew, they moved into another house they custom-built in the Craftsman style. When a job change brought the family to Memphis, they sought and found another original Craftsman because they missed the quirks and character that accompany an older home.

"This house is perfect," Axt said of the 1912-built four-square in Central Gardens. "We could live here forever."

The Axts spent a year restoring the downstairs millwork to its original warm dark color and outfitting the front rooms with period art and furnishings they've collected through the years.

In the meantime, they renovated the kitchen to create a space that's perfectly livable for 2012, but retains the charm of an earlier era. White painted cabinetry, white subway tile and a roomy island combine to form a clean-feeling, family-friendly room that's not too modern and not too precious.

"I did soapstone countertops, which everyone told me, 'Don't do that. They're going to be high-maintenance, and they'll leave water marks,'" Axt said. "I love water marks. They make it look old. It just shows that we use the house. I don't need all of our stuff to look pristine and beautiful all the time. I want people to know we spend time in this kitchen."

Erin Murray agrees that a benefit of living in a historic house is that wear and tear don't detract from — but only add to its character.

"Honestly, if you're in a new house, a lot of times you're worried about things getting scratched and nicked," said Murray, who moved into her 76-year-old farmhouse-style home in Germantown in June with her husband, Ryan, and 2-year-old son, Calvin. "I just like the thought of being able to let my son run his tractors and trucks on the floor and knowing it's not going to damage the look of the floor. It's got character already."

That doesn't mean an older house is easier to take care of than a new home, Murray added — just that it's harder to damage.

"It's seen the wear and the tear of families that have lived there in the past," she said.

In fact, as most owners of older homes would agree, caring for an old house isn't easy, and it isn't inexpensive. But many find the trade-offs are worth it — especially when it means they become the caretakers of a little piece of history.

"When we came in, we decided we wanted to maintain our house exactly, to the tee, of the way it was originally done," said Sidney Mendelson, who bought his 1965-built, architect-designed Modern house in East Memphis in 1993 along with his wife, Andie.

The Mendelsons updated all the home's mechanical systems, replacing them with energy-efficient products. They also replaced all windows — quite a job, considering much of the home's exterior is glass.

From a lifestyle standpoint, he said, the house is idyllic. It's surrounded by trees, and since the walls are sheathed almost entirely in glass, the view of nature is ever-present.

"It's wide open," he said. "Living in this house is absolutely like living in the mountains in Colorado."

When asked if he'd ever consider moving back into a traditional house, Mendelson answered with an emphatic "No."

"This will spoil you, living life in this style," he said. "It's not that it's such a magnificent, big structure, because it's not. The style of it and the uniqueness of the home are what make people feel good. ... It's almost like being on vacation every day."

Older homes are often exciting places to raise a family, said Marty Gorman, Memphis architect and co-author of "A Survey of Modern Houses in Memphis, Tennessee from 1940-1980." The book is available through AIA Memphis, aiamemphis.org.

Gorman and collaborators/architects Keith Kays, Lee Askew and Louis Pounders spent months interviewing owners of the city's most storied Modern houses to find out what life was like in the historic structures.

"A lot of the homes had play areas and so forth, and owners talked about how their kids loved that," Gorman said.

Whether the homes they live in are Modern, Craftsman or Victorian, families who choose to live in historic structures often are choosing more than a house. They're choosing a lifestyle, and they're creating experiences that stick in the memory as part of the fabric of family life.

"I know the kids notice the loose floorboard right in front of their room and the way it creaks," Axt said. "That's stuff you can only get in an old house. I think they're going to grow up with an appreciation for it."